Sweet potato variety
Jewel Sweet potato
Jewel is an orange-fleshed sweet potato, ready in about 100–120 days. You grow sweet potatoes from “slips” — rooted sprouts — not seed or tubers. Plant them once the soil is warm, give them a long, hot summer to sprawl, and dig before frost. Then cure them warm for a week or two, which heals the skins and turns the flesh sweet.
“A heat-loving root that cures sweet and stores for months.”
Growing basics — shared by every sweet potato
Jewel grows like any other sweet potato. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Sweet potato page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 9–15 in
- Row spacing
- 36–48 in
- Planting depth
- 3–5 in
- Soil pH
- 5.5–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Jewel good for?
- Baking & roastingCaramelizes sweet. Great
- Mash & pieSilky and sweet. Great
- FriesCrisp them hot. Great
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Jewel is known for
We hold one description of this variety and no record of who made it, so it is not printed here. An unattributed claim about a plant is a claim we would be making ourselves, and we would rather show you the gap than fill it.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Jewel in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Aug, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Toughen up outside
- late Apr – early May
- Move plants outside
- early May – mid May
- Growing
- mid May – early Aug
- Picking
- early Aug – mid Sep
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Jewel — the things that trip people up
- Sweet potatoes grow from slips — rooted sprouts you buy or start from a tuber. Plant them only once both the air and soil are warm; they’re tropical and won’t move in the cold.
- Dig carefully before the first frost (frost damages the roots), then cure them for a week or two somewhere warm and humid. Curing heals nicks, sweetens the flesh, and lets them store for months.
Jewel sweet potato at a glance
| Type | Orange |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 100–120 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Orange |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Jewel
How long does Jewel take to grow?
About 100–120 days of warm weather from planting slips to digging — plant only after the soil has warmed up.
How do I grow Jewel — from seed?
No — from “slips,” which are rooted sprouts. Buy them or sprout your own from a sweet potato, then plant them out when it’s warm.